Technology

A mobile carrier allowed anyone with one of its customers phone numbers to access their personal information, including name, address, phone number, and text and call history, according to a report by Ars Technica. The carrier, Q Link Wireless, claimed to have over two million customers in 2019. Ars Technica noted a Reddit post saying that the app used by the carrier and its subsidiary Hello Mobile never asked for a password or any identifying information when the user was logging on with a phone number. Looking through the reviews, there are references to the poor security practices (to put it mildly) going back to December of 2020. While it’s unclear when the credential-less login system appeared, there is an update note from two years ago that mentions an “updated login process.” A ton ...

More than 500 Alphabet employees have signed an open letter demanding Google stop protecting the subjects of harassment complaints. The move comes two days after former Google engineer Emi Nietfeld wrote an op-ed in The New York Times alleging that she was forced to have one-on-one meetings with the man who harassed her — and sit next to him in the office — even after she filed an HR complaint. “This is a long pattern where Alphabet protects the harasser instead of protecting the person harmed by the harassment,” the letter reads. “The person who reports harassment is forced to bear the burden, usually leaving Alphabet while their harasser stays or is rewarded for their behavior.” Workers lay out two demands in the letter. First, that Google strip harassers of their direct reports, ensurin...

Senate Judiciary Committee leaders are demanding that Apple provide a witness for an upcoming hearing on app stores and digital competition after the iPhone manufacturer has refused to participate, according to a new letter to the company released Friday. In the letter addressed to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT) say the company “abruptly” decided not to provide a witness for an April hearing on digital markets focused on Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store. “Apple abruptly declared that it would not provide any witness” “Apple has been aware for weeks that the Subcommittee was planning a hearing on this topic and was engaged in discussions with our staff regarding who would testify on Apple’s behalf,” the senators wrote to Apple Friday. “Yet a li...

Google is just starting to test its replacement for third-party cookies, but DuckDuckGo is already announcing that it wants to block that tech with its Chrome extension. Google’s FLoC, or Federated Learning of Cohorts, technology is designed to be a more privacy-centered way to track users and serve ads to them, but some privacy advocates, like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, have claimed that it could be harmful to consumers. We have a great explainer on what FLoC is for those who want to go in-depth, but the overview is that the tech works to sort users into groups based on their behavior. Advertisers can then target those groups instead of individual people. Privacy advocates argue that, while it’s better than the third-party cookie situation, FLoC IDs could still be bad for consume...

Transformers are some of the most iconic toys around — an action figure and a car! All in one! A true bargain! But as modern Transformers toys have gotten more complex, they have also become an absolutely huge pain to actually transform from car to robot and back again, often requiring multiple shame-filled trips back to the trashcan where you threw it in a fit of hubris. Hasbro is finally fixing that problem. Not by making the toys simpler, but by making them a lot more complicated and expensive in the form of its new $700 Optimus Prime Auto-Converting Programmable Advanced Robot, which thanks to the power of real robotics technology (in the form of 27 servo motors and a mobile app) can actually transform all by itself. The new Transformer is almost breathtaking in its complexity: Hasbro ...

Phoebe Waller-Bridge is joining the as-yet-untitled fifth Indiana Jones film, co-starring as an as-yet-announced character opposite Harrison Ford (who’ll be returning as the titular adventurer, of course). Also set to return is John Williams, who has scored the previous four films and whose “Raiders March” theme is indelibly associated with the character. Disney hasn’t announced details on who Waller-Bridge (best known for her award-winning series Fleabag, along with appearances in Solo and the upcoming No Time to Die) will be playing, although in a 2019 interview with The Sun, franchise creator Steven Spielberg did acknowledge that it might be time for a female iteration of the character. Using the fifth film to pass the torch from the 78-year-old Ford to Waller-Bridge could be a good way...

Google has officially announced a new Pixel phone, the Pixel 5A 5G. It’s done so in the same way it has announced a lot of recent Pixel phones: by reacting to a rumor. This time is a little less fun than usual, though, because the rumor in question is that the phone had been canceled entirely. In response, a Google spokesperson sent along the following statement: Pixel 5a 5G is not cancelled. It will be available later this year in the U.S. and Japan and announced in line with when last year’s a-series phone was introduced. Earlier today, Android Central cited two independent sources claiming the Pixel 5A had been canceled, following a tweet from Jon Prosser claiming it was due to chip shortages. It does appear that the chip shortages are real, however, as Google is only planning to releas...

In its first budget proposal to Congress on Friday, the White House called for new funding to fight the ongoing semiconductor shortage. Among other measures, the White House’s budget request includes $150 million to fund two new manufacturing programs, including one targeting domestic semiconductor manufacturing. It’s the latest effort from the White House to address the ongoing semiconductor shortage, which has stalled supply for consumer items like the PlayStation 5 and halted production at Ford assembly lines. The “American Jobs Plan,” the sweeping $2 trillion infrastructure package unveiled in March, also included new funding to build domestic chip manufacturing capacity, allocating over $50 billion for investment in the sector. In February, President Biden signed an executive order ca...

To whom it may concern at The Walt Disney Company and / or Lucasfilm: Show me the damn lightsaber. I know you have a real one now. And it’s time to fess up. Let’s backtrack a bit. Yesterday, at a seemingly routine press event for the upcoming launch of Disneyland’s new Avengers Campus area on June 4th, Josh D’Amaro, the chairman of Disney parks, ended his presentation with a surprise reveal of a new lightsaber. According to tweets from theme park reporter Carlye Wisel, who attended the press conference, the lightsaber was not the typical IRL lightsaber of “a giant light up stick attached to a neat-looking hilt.” In fact, it was the holy grail of replica sabers: one that can fully extend and retract its blade, just like the “real” lightsabers in the films. I just attended a virtual press co...

A flight from the UK to Spain took off with more than a metric ton of unexpected weight after a software error classified female passengers using the title “Miss” as children. This led to the flight’s load sheet estimating the weight of 38 female passengers as 38 kg or 77 pounds each, the standard weight for children, instead of 69 kg or 152 pounds, the standard weight used for female adults. The error was classified as a “serious incident” by the UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) but did not affect the flight’s safety. Despite a discrepancy of 1,244 kg (2,743 pounds) between the expected and actual mass of the aircraft, the thrust used in takeoff by the pilot was only “marginally less” than what was required. “This meant the safe operation of the aircraft was not compromised,...

Samsung Electronics is close to ordering millions of OLED TV panels from LG Display, according to new reports from MTN, ETNews, and Seoul Economic Daily. Officials reportedly met recently to agree to the deal, which would see 1 million panels supplied to Samsung in the second half of this year, rising to 4 million panels next year. If the deal is finalized, it would be the first time Samsung has bought OLED panels from its South Korean rival and market leader. TVs with LG’s OLED panels consistently rate amongst the best in professional reviews. Samsung exited the OLED TV market over half a decade ago. Today, LG Display supplies OLED panels to a variety of TV manufacturers including Sony, Vizio, and Hisense, as well as LG Electronics. Last year LG Display announced an expansion of its OLED ...

The Folio Society has released a limited-edition, four-volume set of Philip K. Dick’s collected short stories and I am seriously considering selling my plasma to buy a copy. Each volume is bound in fluorescent colors, with 2,560 pages of text containing some 118 stories. There are 24 illustrations by 24 different artists, and the set itself has a theme inspired by the symbols found on Zener cards — famously used throughout the 20th century to test for telepaths (mind-reading being a recurrent theme in Dick’s fiction). The collection is absolutely stunning, like so many special editions by The Folio Society, but has a hefty price-tag of £495 ($679). There are also only 750 copies available to buy and it looks like they’re selling out quick. [embedded content] Philip K. Dick is an undisputed...